


A moment of decision

by 0positiv



Category: James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 18:10:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8112280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0positiv/pseuds/0positiv
Summary: James deciding on Don Simon's fate with a syringe of silver nitrate in hand and a stake at the ready.Spoilers for the end of Blood Maidens I guess.





	

When he stood next to him with the syringe filled with silver nitrate in one hand and the stake and hammer lying on the cold stone ledge in front of him all he could think was _He saved Lydia, he saved our unborn child_. His hand shook as he tried to find the right angle to hit the vein in his neck and when his gaze shifted to the young looking face relaxed in its death like sleep the tension in his shoulders suddenly let go and he knew he would not be able to do it. _Every death he causes henceforth shall be on your head_ , he heard Rebe Karlebach admonish him sternly. And with a conviction he did not feel he told this imaginary voice _No, his actions are his own, all I can be held accountable for are my actions and I shall not kill a man who has been my friend, who has saved my life and the life of the woman I love with all my heart_.

Because if his work for the foreign office had taught James anything it was that no matter what excuses any of them made, whether they justify their murder by love, necessity, or King and Country, it would always be their decision and no one else's. It would always be their guilt. He did not know if the young man who came to England for some recreational spying and found himself obliged to stay because he gave his soul to a monster had ever regretted any of his decisions but he thought he knew the vampire that man had become well enough to know that he had no delusions about the thing he was. Setting down the syringe James picked up the worn gold ring and studied the nearly invisible pattern on it for a while before putting it back onto the cold white hand. One day Simon would stand before a divine judge and he would have to give an account of his actions in life and death and then await judgement on his soul but James would not be the one who sent him there. For the sake of his wife, who though she would understand might never forgive him, for the sake of his unborn child who would for how ever long Simon existed have an unseen protector, for the sake of his own heart that saw in this man not a monster but a comrade in arms he could not finish what he set out to accomplish. _And you knew that already, did you not, when you lay down to sleep, you smug Spanish bastard?_ With a bitter-sweet smile he picked up his lantern to with the help of their ball of twine retrace his steps to the courtyard where Lydia waited. The longing to take her into his arms and never let her go was stronger than any other feeling in his heart right now and in the evening, an appropriate time after nightfall, they would let Prince Razumovsky know that there were some strange goings on at the old monastery that the police might want to look into. By the time the authorities arrived on the scene Simon would be long gone.

 


End file.
